A Virtual Storm Brewing and the “Wild Wild West” in Social Media – Social Vibe…. And Less SocialFrom Machine Intelligence, Social NOT Working, the New Network Self and the “Full Frontal” to Custom Social Platforms, Nexus Points and Expersourcing.Professor Luiz MoutinhoFoundation Chair of MarketingAdam Smith Business SchoolUniversity of Glasgow,Scotland.

CONVERSATIONS

….. And conversations!

• Markets are conversations

• Markets are getting smarter, more informed,, more organised.

• People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors.

• The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products.

• Companies that do not belong to a community of discourse will die.

THE FUTURE BUZZ - ….. The boring stats.• 450 million blogs indexed by Technorati.

• 386 million people globally who read blogs.View more than 3.5 billion pages each month.

• 81 Languages represented in the blogosphere.

• People view 4 billion YouTube videos per day.

• 40 million unique visitors to Twitter.com

• 1 billion active Facebook users, but days of wild user growth appear over at Facebook.

• 483 million Facebook users who log in daily.

• Twitter is now growing way faster than Facebook (3 times faster) (32%)

• 91% of users are likely to buy on recommendation.

• Linkedin has 131 million users.

• MySpace has over 262 million users

• Internet users spend 22.5% of their online time social networking.

• Anywhere consumer

• Lifestreaming / Lifelogging

• Open Social. The live web can be the ultimate focus group – 600 M unsolicited opinions.

• As social communities open wide, trust and privacy protocols will become key – for users and networks

• The developer trend of “forced invites” is experiencing a backlash. This type of marketer encroachment can temper momentum.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS:

• Proximity and frequency of contact

• Similarity

• Self – Presentation

• Reciprocity and Self-Disclosure

• Consistency

PARADOX OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Despite Social Media exposing everyone to the mass of information out there,readers tend to narrow only selected news feed depending on individual’s interests.We only get the sites that we like.It can be a very closed way of looking at the world.Social media is not a marketing media. It is a genuine communication media. Social media is about the people,not brands.Relevance.The filtering of information is becoming important,e.g.,Yahoo’s social bar.

TRENDS IN SOCIAL MEDIA

• From Destination Social to Dispersed Social.

• (Social) Selling everywhere

• From Group Discounts to Group Dynamics (city- wide campaigns)

• The evolution of location (Intuitive) (where I have been, where I am, where I should be and where I will be)

• The rise of Social Business

• The Consumer as Curator

• Rewarding Social Sharing

• Convergence and Blurred Boundaries (e.g. Google/Motorola)- Chrome book computer (e.g.,the Facebook Phone” and Web OS)

• Cross Device Consumption

• HTML 5 and the rise of Web Apps

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TRENDS AND IMPERATIVES

• Audiences will be in control

• Community Management is important to engage people

• Integration of websites with social technology

• Campaigns spanning from offline to social

• Consumer-based social networks will make big efforts to gain wider access to the enterprise. Rise of “Social middleware” – services that act as a layer between social networks and the enterprise.

Social Media Trending

MORE……. LESS……..MORE PRIVACY

New Social tools and services

Privacy

Content Single Destination Websites

Collaboration Desired Exclusivity

Machine Intelligence Real Relationships

Social Connections Direct only Marketing

Social Media Scale – Back: Savvy consumers are now in the process of deciding what degree of personal disclosure and social-net activity they can deal with

Social Influence Marketing (SIM)

• Social Media Marketing

• Feedback 3.0

• Social Media Storefronts

But,……

• “Social Not Working” (SNW) and “Social Networks Fatigue” (SNF)

• Get a First Life, ….. Not Second Life! Although some innovative companies are now using virtual worlds like Second Life to hold global conferences and conduct internal training (Novartis, J C Penney, IBM)

• Build Relationships (not networking)

• Social media begins to look less social. Networks could begin to feel more “exclusive”. Networks begin to fill with noise.

• People are beginning to get bored with social networks.

• The “user engagement” is dropping off (page impression growth is slowing).

• People are not attracted by useful and relevant information, but by intrusive time-wasting opportunities.

• Facebook behaviour; join, accumulate dozens of semi-friends, spy on a few exes for a bit, get bored, then get on with your life…..

T/P ratio

Social Vibe: Too many social media updates turn off consumers

• A third of internet users in the U.S. have cut social media ties with a brand because they were receiving too many updates.

• Excessive updates was by far the most common reason to de-friending a brand – above concerns about brand values.

The Endless Pursuit of Meaningless ‘Likes’

“Now is the Wild Wild West in social media”.

The futility of terms such as ‘like’ or ‘fan’. It is a litany of misleading statements: connections, friends, fans and likes all mark very different sets of online behaviours.

People do not understand that a “like” is not an abstract event, but a mechanism for data storage.

To attempt to take the richness and complexity of human relationships and reduce them to a series of streamlined interactions is impossible.

ENGAGE RATHER THAN SELL…….

WORK AS A CO-CREATOR, NOT A MARKETER.

There is a Virtual Storm of New Social Networks Brewing….

• “I am leaving Facebook” and “I am quitting Twitter” are standard openers. People are dissatisfied.

• Decline in American Facebook users (Wall Street), especially in the influential younger demographic, who are moving to smaller sites.

• Instagram has overtaken Twitter on mobile devices in the U.S.

• Simpler, younger, less corporate social networks are suddenly looking very attractive.

PLATFORMS SELL SOCIAL CURRENCY NOT PRODUCTS

RATHER THAN TALKING ABOUT IT, PLATFORMS DO CUSTOMER CENTRICITY

Collaborative Platforms…..

….thrive when reputation (of participants) is a critical component of the service mechanism.

The reputation of participants will derive from the quantity (how much, how often) and quality (how useful) of their contributions.

Accreditation (of content) is provided by experts and by the community. Recent, relevant content regarded highly by participants with a good reputation becomes the most visible.

MADE BY MANY

The Shift Towards Custom Social Platforms

Social Media is beginning to make its next evolution by shifting from platforms like Facebook to social enabled websites.

Niche interests.

Brand Users Vs. User Content

The other option is to provide the platform for users to engage on and let the user content be the main draw for others to visit the site.

ed

Allowing users to share their content would be a critical value-added approach.

This way, users can initiate community and connection with other users. The brand is there to facilitate and to contribute occasionally in a meaningful way. We will start to see lots of brands setting up these niche social sites.

Facebook Alternatives

With over 1 billion people on Facebook, social networkers will be exploring more niche communities, greater exclusivity and privacy – Appleseed, OneSocialWeb, Diaspora, Pip, io, the Fridge and CollegeOnly, including DIY Social Networks, invite- only offerings and student networks. E.g.. Path – “the personal network” – “a place to be yourself”, limits members to 50 connections.

Watch for counter-moves from Facebook – Groups Feature.

Vertical Search Engines

A Vertical Search Engine searches a specific industry, topic, type of content (e.g., travel, movies, images, blogs, live events), piece of data, geographical location, and so on. Vertical search as a search for a particular niche. The topic of vertical search is closely related to that of the DEEP WEB.

A few examples of vertical search engines

Topical Industry Image News Blog Social Web real time

MedNar & PubMed BizNar – the world of business

Picsearch Alltop Google Blog Search Twitter Search& Twitscoop – for twitter content

ScienceResearch.com Stock Screener from Yahoo!

NewsNow Technorati FriendFeed Search – for social networking activities

World Wide Science

Visual Search Engines

Instead of long lists of page titles and URLs, visual search engines deliver visually rich maps of content results, often utilizing also size, colour and positioning to communicate at a glance a greater array of information about items found. Select a visualisation type, re-arrange your results, sort them by date, or by other possible parameters.

Technology Type: Software or web-based

Visualisation types: Dynamic map, stacks, list, tag clouds, etc

Search options: Sort by date, exclude keywords, search inside domain, RSS, etc.

TOP VISUAL SEARCH ENGINES

Grokker - Results are displayed in a dynamic map you can interact with.

KartOO - KartOO is a web-based visual search engine that can search the Web, images, videos and Wikipedia entries. Using Google, and Yahoo! Search engines KartOO allows you to create a visual map where related results are linked between them.

Viewzi - Viewzi is a powerful visual search engine that provides many different possibilities to display your results. SERPs can be arranged in stacks.

Searchme – is a web-based search engine that allows you to explore SERPs in a visual fashion. Searchme displays results in a dynamic carousel stack that you can navigate back and forth. Searches are performed in multiple categories like videos, images, advertising, shopping, sport, entertainment, news, and more.

Quintura – can search the Web, images and Blinkx. Results are displayed in a customizable tag cloud, and a classic organic outline. The tag cloud with your results can be also embedded and shared with others via e-mail.

Ujiko – allows you to scout the web and arrange your results in a radial outline.

Search-cube – is a search engine that instead displaying your results in a classic organic style, creates a 3D cube made up of visual previews.

Middlespot – allows you to create as many workpads as the search terms you want to explore. Results will be displayed inside a gallery where you can zoom and re-arrange elements.

oSKope – Different visualizations styles like: grid, stack, pile, graph and list.

Nexplore – The web-based service shows also related Wikipedia definitions for your searched keywords. Results can be displayed in three ways: summary, line, gallery, and can be shared on the internet.

EyePlorer – is not a proper visual search engine, because you cannot search for any words or phrases you like. The service rather provides you with a visual representation for common, popular facts and suggests connections with other related facts and sources. All results displayed inside a coloured wheel can be arranged onto a virtual notepad for later reading and sorted for relevance.

Ziipa – is a web-based visual search engine for Web 2.0 web designs and applications. Unlike other competitors in this field, Ziipa does not search images, videos, or other media content. Results are showed by a gallery and a tag cloud and can be shared and syndicated via RSS.

RedZee – is a visual search engine displaying a carousel you can navigate back and forth right inside your browser window. No media content can be searched via RedZee.

Liveplasma – is a visual search engine to explore music and movies. By searching for a keyword related to these two topics, the service will suggest other potential related interests and arrange them in bubbles, linked between them. The map with your results can also be shared on the Web.

TouchGraph Google Browser – is a visual search engine that displays the connections between web sites using Google technology and visualizing the results in an interactive and customizable map. Results can be filtered and re-arranged around the map. You need to have at least Java 1.5 installed on your machine for TouchGraph Google Browser to work.

Coolris – is a browser extension for Firefox (all platforms), IE (Windows), and Safari (Mac and Windows) that allows you to explore SERPs in a visual fashion. Once started, Coolris goes full screen creating a dynamic 3D wall you can navigate back and forth. You can search for different content among the web, news, blogs, images, and videos. Results can also be enlarged, shared via email and, being media, played right inside the application.

The Complexity of Integrating Datasets

Social Data E-Commerce Data

Complex Algorithms and Fuzzy Logic

Ubiquitous and Intuitive: Social and Shopping Everywhere

• “Like” and share physical products (e.g., Diesel)

• “Like” and tag pictures via RFID (e.g., Coke)

• Increase distribution without building new stores (e.g., Tesco Korea)

• Democratising Distribution (e.g., ASOS Marketplace, users take pictures of clothes they want to sell, their own designs, upload and price the outfits, sell them – 10%. Fees to ASOS.

• Intuitive: Clustering conversations. Re-orienting the newsfeed around key themes and topics (e.g., Facebook).

…..Any content provided by a marketer in the social media needs to work as social currency. Whatever story there is, it is mostly told by the users, not by the brand…

Continuous partial attention. Attentioning.

• “Smarter” connective technologies accelerate the velocity of ideas.

• Technology and social factors converge to create social computing.

• Social graphs. Mini-feeds. Persona ecosystems. Me-driven. Mobisodes (mobile phone TV episodes). Video hauls. Social shopping. Personal media. Personal life channels.

• Shopping apps like Facebook’s Visual Bookshelf extends my shopping antennae throughout my social fabric of “expert” friends (e.g., Mars-Facebook Real candy for virtual friends).

1. Real-time streams, real-time search, real-time expectations.

2. Social Periphery – mobile computing, current location, real-time searches, social sites (Yelp and Urbanspoon), local advertisements, mobile social networks (MOSOSO). SoLoMo.

3. Augmented reality

4. Near-field communication – a 2 way, bio-directional RFID, your mobile can work as a tag or as a reader (Sony-Ericsson).

5. Real-time responsive retail POS and outdoor.

6. The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise and community boundaries.

7. Mentionmap maps.

Socially Interactive Outdoor

NFC is currently high on the hype curve. The concept of location check-ins. Although it is still early days, it is also apparent many advertisers and brands are keen to run socially enabled campaigns to generate social buzz and test levels of interaction. eMotion screens. People encouraged to use their mobiles to interact with the screens. The integration of social media and digital outdoor campaigns to capture the global conversation. “Feed the Tweet Map”.

Semantic Web

• The semantic web is about machines talking to machines. It is about making the web more “intelligent”. Computers analysing all the data on the web – the content, links and transactions between people and computers.

• The building blocks of the semantic web are here already: RDF (Resource Description Framework), OWL (Web Ontology Language), microformats are a few of them.

Web vs Virtual Worlds

In general, comparing Web tools and applications (including Facebook and Twitter) to Virtual Worlds (around 120):

WEB Virtual Worlds

Solo Experience Group Experience

2D 3D, 4D

Flat Immersive

Independent Collaborative

The New Network Self

• Identity Flux – technology allowed to experiment with different personalities. A much more fluid sense of who we are. After virtual liberation, we are starting to reject the singularly defined roles we are expected to play in society.

• Gender – neutrality goes mainstream

• Virtual Immortality – consumers creating existences in the virtual world – dressing up their avatars. Multiple lives.

The Next Digital Wave

• Social Media will decrease diffusion time for research and innovations.

• Collective Intelligence

• Open thinking and crowdsourcing. Open Environment.

• Innovation leveraging employee, consumer and third-party networks. Enterprise Social Innovation. Stakeholders as active participants.

• More and better new products ideas or requirements.

• Lower product development costs.

The New Advertising Metrics –

• The next -generation metrics

• The biggest change that will happen in the next few years in metrics also ties into what is happening in targeting and real time bidding. The social graph – the connections we all have with others will drive massive change. The ability to understand which people (represented by a node in the graph) are really “nexus points” – influencers, change drivers – means that we can be much more thoughtful about how we influence and who we contact to achieve maximum effect.

Earned Media

• Meteor Solution has built an analytics solution that tracks how content is shared. It dynamically creates a social graph that uses first-party tracking tags in the URL (Uniform Resource Location) of hosted content. When a person copies and pastes that URL into some vehicle, and someone clicks on it, Meteor captures that activity and creates a new node. If one of those people then copies and pastes the link, it creates another node.

• Ultimately,Meteor has built a powerful analytics engine that is fine tuned for tracking the sharing of content. The company can identify (anonymously) influencers, track where the person who shared the content was geographically, and see the link-stream from the source to numerous end-users who saw the content.

Value of Social Media

By using social media to generate consumer engagement and word-of-net, brands can create earned media benefits. To date there has been no way of meaningfully assessing the value of this investment in social media compared with investing in other marketing communication channels. To address this, the idea of “social equivalent advertising value” (SEAV) has been developed.

Motivating Moral Corporate Behaviour

Although companies are institutionalizing ethics, ethical infractions continue unceasingly. It is suggested that business people need not only the intellect but also the will to do the right thing in the face of temptation. Business people should want to take the moral high road for the fact that usually ethical behaviour proves to be profitable in the long run. The ethical person chooses the moral course of action regardless of personal sacrifice.

Ethics

• Rethinking values in the Post-Crisis World.

• Companies must have conscience.

• Companies being corporate citizens have a moral imperative.

• No justification for “immoral actions”.

• Teleological approach creates more problems than it solves.

• Money matters less, what do you do with it matters more!

Doing Good……

58% of social media users say they write product reviews to protect others from bad experiences, and nearly 1 in 4 say they share their negative experiences to “punish companies”.

(NIELSENwire).

The Other Side…….

• 40% of accounts and 8% of messages on social media sites are spam.

• 24% of Americans and 28% of Brits have admitted to lying or exaggerating on a social network about what they have done and/or who they have met.

Paid Twitters – this is already happening and was inevitable. Super twitter account holders will start selling out and doing “Hey check this out” for cold hard cash. It is easy to hide affiliate links as well, since most use URL shortening tools to link out.

Buying Twitter Followers? Beware Status People, The Service That Exposes Social Media’s Black Market.

Klout, the popular service that calculates a user’s online influence, this new tool could prove to be even more disruptive-and a blow to a user’s credibility if they try to game their popularity in the digital space.

The main goal of StatusPeople’s web app is to find out “how many fake followers you and your friends have”. The “Dark World of Paid Followers”.

• According to Fast Company’s recent Social Media Road Map, it costs a mere $77 to buy 5,000 Twitter follower bots at buytwitterfollowers.org. Using usocial.net, a more substantial fee of $617 will get you 4,000 Facebook fan bots. Facebook admitted it has 83 million fake accounts and dupes. The social media black market is alive and well.

• Within the first few weeks of StatusPeople’s fake follower app launching, more than 30,000 people have signed up, demonstrating our collective desire to find out if a person’s follower number is in fact the real deal.

• Will StatusPeople’s app put an end to digital fakers? Not likely, but it is certainly going to cause some serious Twitter shame, and make users think twice before buying followers. Consider yourself warned.

Ghost Blogging

• Look for a way to blog for your own business in an open and transparent way.

• Ghost writing is one of those little white lies than can easily spin out of control and backfire.

• Blogging could be a waste of time and money for a business if it is not willing to embrace the concept of what it means to participate in social media.

• Ghostwriting a blog is a slippery slope.

Sponsored Stories

As its stock continues to be battered by skeptical investors, Facebook is hoping that a new advertising format, called sponsored stories, may help overcome concerns about its future.

Pick The Right Crowd

Mass collaborations, co-creation, and crowdsourcing are becoming increasingly important vehicles for companies looking to engage the voices of consumers with brands. At last count there were more than 100 crowdsourcing platforms available for some kind of design or marketing work. Picking the right one is key. There are many factors to consider, from who is in a particular crowd to how talent is paid or how intellectual property is handled. Many times, success will come from breaking a project into smaller pieces and tapping different crowds for the various different elements. In general, it seems it is best to combine small private crowds (these days know as “expersourcing”). As the world becomes more digitally connected, we should celebrate the fact that marketing and advertising ideas are coming from everywhere.

Full Frontal

• Not just transparent, but naked and proud.

• Brands must move from “having nothing to hide”, to pro-actively showing and proving they have nothing to hide.

• Total transparency will become a hygiene factor.

• Only brands that have the utmost confidence in their products (and themselves) will be able to go Full Frontal.

Social Media is about the people. Not about your business. Provide for the people and the people will provide for you.